In the late 1940s, hardhitting action director Hathaway was the pioneer of a new breed of startlingly neo-realistic, noirish crime film. Pictures like HOUSE ON 92nd STREET and KISS OF DEATH helped to cement his reputation as a genre master, and there's no better example of his straight-from-the-headlines style than in this superior suspenser, with James Stewart trying to prove that convicted killer Richard Conte is innocent. With Lee J. Cobb, Helen Walker.